The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Chiron-Pluto conjunction, by Liz Greene

Apollon, January 2001

The Centre for Psychological Astrology CPA offers all six issues of the journal "Apollon" for free. Visit www.cpalondon.com to download the PDF files.

If Liz Greene's writing were edible, this article, on the current Sagittarian
ferment, would taste like pickle; a sharp sauerkraut, or an edgy borscht
with sour cream - for this is the flavour of the Chiron-Pluto conjunction.
An acquired taste, perhaps, repellent to some, but rich, nutritious soulfood
for those who are digging in and are here to stay.

For those of us who
are inveterate planetary cycle-watchers, the limelight was stolen for
much of this year by the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction - with which we may
associate not only recent stock market wobbles, but also the pervasive
sense of an old era ending and a new one beginning. There has been a lot
of anxiety about. Much of our millennium hysteria, crystallising in prophecies
of the end of the world and rampant overstocking of tinned food and toilet
paper, was energised not only by the solar eclipse in August 1999, but
also by the gradual approach of this great cyclical conjunction which
made its exact aspect at the end of May 2000. In ancient and medieval
astrology, the conjoining of Jupiter and Saturn signifies the death of
the old king and the birth of a new one; and in many arenas we are continuing
to observe the gradual ending of old value systems and outworn structures,
especially in political and economic spheres.
However, there is another major planetary conjunction which has been within
orb for over a year, largely ignored by astrologers: perhaps subtler in
terms of related worldly events, but equally relevant to our "state of
mind" and, more importantly, our "state of spirit", as a collective and
as individuals. This is the cyclical conjunction of Pluto and Chiron,
which is presently occurring in Sagittarius. Chiron entered Sagittarius
in January 1999. It dipped back into Scorpio during July, August and September,
and re-entered Sagittarius in October. It made its only exact conjunction
with Pluto in the last days of December, 1999. Although these two planets
made no more exact conjunctions, they remained within orb of conjunction
throughout 2000, and will not part until February 2001. Their interaction
will have lasted for a full two years. As astrologers, we tend to look first at worldly
events to make some sense of major planetary aspects in the heavens. But
this may not be the only, nor even the most helpful, way in which we may
grasp the deeper meaning of such aspects and what they have to offer us.
We can certainly get insights from events; but events are difficult to
define. When, for example, does a marriage end? When the two people divorce,
or when the relationship dies on the emotional level? These two "events",
one concrete and the other emotional, may occur years apart. Or we may
look at five different automobile accidents in which the driver has died,
and say that they are the same "event". But the first occurred due to
drunken driving, the second occurred because the driver was speeding,
the third occurred because a flat tyre threw the car out of control, the
fourth occurred because of another driver's idiocy, and the fifth occurred
because the driver had a heart attack at the wheel. These apparently identical
events are deeply different in cause and meaning. Or we may say, "When
Saturn and Uranus formed a conjunction in Taurus and Gemini during the
20th century, World War II occurred." But wars have always occurred, with
or without Saturn-Uranus conjunctions. What matters is the nature of a
particular war, its "motives" and "purpose", its effects on the people
involved, and, ultimately, the archetypal background which infuses that
particular conflict. Transiting planetary aspects do not describe
events. Events describe aspects. These aspects in turn reflect archetypal
patterns which might or might not manifest as events, in part depending
on the choices of all those who are receptive to, or identified with,
the pattern. Transits such as Jupiter-Saturn or Chiron-Pluto reflect something
"inner", something which is activated in the psychic life of the collective
as it unfolds and reaches critical junctures and transformative stages.
These transits are inside us. For the first part of 2000, we all discovered
a little of how it feels to have a natal Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in
Taurus; and we are continuing to discover how it feels to have a natal
Chiron-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius. We all share in the responsibility
of dealing with these planetary movements as creatively as possible. How
we feel, what we experience, and how we ourselves enact and embody these
transits, knowingly or unknowingly, is as relevant as what "happens" in
the world outside. We are not the victims or pawns of planetary movements;
we are, each of us, creative participants in the shaping of the future
course of events. Although able to freely offer that piece of
good advice, I of course disregarded it myself when first observing this
important planetary aspect, and initially I tried to see if I could identify
any worldly events with what I understood to be the meaning or flavour
of the Chiron-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius. This is, in the main,
a fruitless exercise, for we see what we want to see. But Chiron's peculiar
relationship with the suffering of the "outsider" seemed clearly enacted
when, on a trip to London at the end of April 1999, I arrived just in
time to hear about the Soho pub bomb, a little piece of atrocity targeting
the London gay community, killing a number of people and injuring a great
many more. This was the third in a series of bomb attacks which took place
within a two-week time span, the first targeting blacks and the second
the Bangladeshi community, organised by one psychopath determined to terrorise
"minority" groups in the city. Terrorist bombs are an everyday occurrence
these days. But these attacks had a different flavour from most. They
were not political in nature, but revealed that most frightening and dangerous
of human propensities: the fanatical intolerance and destructiveness which
arise when we project the despised and feared "outsider" in ourselves
on others around us, and see them as a threat to our survival.
In December 1999, when the conjunction was exact, I waited to see what
might appear in the papers over the next few days. Lo and behold: the
stabbing of the George Harrison, the "quiet Beatle", occurred on 30th
December 1999. What, I wondered, could this event possibly mean in terms
of the collective psyche? Harrison was always the least obtrusive of the
Beatles. He lives a private, introverted life, as befits his Pisces Sun,
Scorpio Ascendant, and Scorpio Moon. Did this strange event mean anything
at all, except to George himself? It did smack of scapegoating: there
was George innocently minding his own business, and horror intruded from
the world outside. In George's progressed chart, the Ascendant had moved
from 2º 23' Scorpio to 9º 14' Sagittarius, with the transiting conjunction
(Chiron at 11º 13', Pluto at 11º 20') sitting close to this progressed
Ascendant and within a degree of orb of opposition to progressed Saturn.
This suggested that George was inadvertently serving as a kind of lightning
conductor for the energies of the Chiron-Pluto zeitgeist, and would be
likely to meet, in his immediate environment, an embodiment of the meaning
of the conjunction. On 31st December, the day after the attempted murder,
The Sunday Times produced the following headline, and another noseful
of Chiron-Pluto's distinctive odour wafted by on the breeze:

The components of the conjunctionPluto reflects the instinctive survival
mechanism of the collective, and of nature itself. It is impersonal and
ruthless, as nature herself is; one extinct species, one dead animal,
is as nothing in the overall sweep of the evolution of organic life. When
we are threatened with extinction, physical or psychological, we discover
that we have Pluto in our chart. That which wishes to survive must destroy
or transform what is life-threatening or no longer viable, internally
and externally; and the process of cleansing of dangerously outworn and
useless survival mechanisms, regenerating new survival mechanisms, is
reflected by Pluto's 246-year transit through the zodiacal signs. Our
Pluto generation - the age group born with Pluto in a particular sign
- shares fundamental ways of defending itself in the face of what we perceive
as a survival threat. Pluto moving through each astrological sign describes
the changing spheres and ways in which the collective weeds out those
elements which threaten its survival. None of us will live to see a complete
Pluto cycle; we are part of something larger, in which our individual
lives and deaths are embedded. Therefore we have to take it on trust.
Since Pluto entered Sagittarius, we have been forced to confront what
threatens our physical and psychological survival in the spheres of morality,
religious beliefs, spiritual aspirations, law, our concepts of right and
wrong, and our definitions of the "highest good". So far, we have run
the gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime: from the pantomime of Monica
Lewinsky and the impeachment of the US President to whether we intervene
in the bloodshed in Kosovo or Sierra Leone, and whether the death penalty
is any kind of solution at all to the problem of human destructiveness.
We have been told by the Vatican in no uncertain terms that consulting
an astrologer or a psychoanalyst constitutes a sin as serious as contraception.
We are being faced with a barrage of moral questions which are not as
simple to answer as they might once have seemed. Behind these moral questions
are deeper spiritual questions: What God do we, as a collective and as
individuals, believe in? Do we believe in anything at all any longer?
Slowly but inexorably, Pluto reveals to us our dangerous religious blindness,
our naivety, our infantile belief in the "goodness" of authority and the
moral rightness of the legal and spiritual systems we have created, and
our desperate allegiance to political and spiritual gurus who promise
quick fixes and an over-the-counter antidote to the condition of being
human. Pluto in Sagittarius also raises issues of the foreigner and what
is foreign, forcing us to recognise that, for some, survival depends on
crossing the borders - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - to find
a new life, while for others, survival depends on keeping the borders
closed.
Chiron, pursuing its erratic orbit between Saturn and Uranus, stands at
the interface between the individual and the collective. We suffer as
individuals, not only because of personal conflicts, but also because
we are part of the human species, and our human collective is inevitably
torn between the animal and the divine. We make terrible mistakes through
our emotional and instinctual compulsions, and equally through our intellectual
arrogance; yet we need to understand why we suffer, and are forever seeking
ways of healing our wounds. Chiron describes the compassionate impulse
to pursue and offer wisdom, and to heal ourselves and others - not from
a Neptunian vision of oneness, but because we all, somewhere, experience
a sense of irrevocable wounding or damage through factors over which we
have had no control. Our urge to heal the world's pain is always, sooner
or later, doomed to disappointment, because humans are what they are and
life is always unfair; and there are some things we cannot fix. Yet we
persist in trying. The myth of Chiron describes a wise teacher and healer
who is caught in the cross-fire of a battle between Herakles, the solar
hero, and the wild and savage centaurs. Chiron is good and wise, yet he
is injured and suffers - perhaps because he is good and wise, and understands
both sides, and thus will not join the battle. The archetypal struggle
between light and darkness, through which, over aeons, we gradually civilise
ourselves, inevitably breeds casualties, reminding us that our aspirations
can only be fulfilled within mortal human limits. The 50-year cycle of Chiron through the signs
describes those changing spheres in which we experience our greatest wounding,
disillusionment, and bitterness, through encounters with destructive impulses
in ourselves and in the collective about which we can do nothing, and
where we may feel blameless and scapegoated. Our Chiron generation group
describes those ways in which we experience ourselves as injured irrevocably
- rendered permanently alien and "outside" - and where we are most likely
to experience disillusionment and bitterness. This is also the arena where
- if we remain unconscious - we are likely to project what is most injured
in ourselves. It also describes those spheres where our questioning, born
of suffering, can lead us to deepen and mature in our beliefs and convictions,
and can open our hearts in compassion for all creatures which suffer through
the condition of being mortal. While Chiron transits through Sagittarius,
we are, as a collective, compelled to experience disillusionment and loss
of faith as we are faced with our moral errors and hypocrisies, our spiritual
gullibility, our misjudgements and prejudices, and our impossible hope
that life will always be fair and the good guys on white horses will always
win.
Where Chiron is concerned, healing seems to involve relinquishing any
claim to immortality or divine power. When he is wounded, the mythic Chiron
retires to his cave in agony and begs for death, which is granted to him;
thus he descends from an immortal to a mortal form, and is freed from
his suffering. This myth suggests that Chiron's healing is not about "fixing"
things, but about relinquishing the fantasy that we are godlike and capable
of changing everything. The acceptance of mortality is also the acceptance
of human limits, and the recognition of our vulnerability. We all partake
not only of heroic solar aspirations, but also of the savage centaurs'
destructiveness; and in Chiron's world, no amount of self-purification
can purge us of our humanness or heal the wounds of our disappointed ideals.
Only an acceptance of imperfection and unfairness, in ourselves and in
life, can allow us to forgive and make peace with those things we cannot
alter or redeem. It may be that the passage of Chiron through Sagittarius
is presently reflecting a profound impetus for us to mature, in terms
of both our God-image and the ways in which we define good and evil.

Chiron-Pluto on the individual levelBecause we are still in the middle of this
conjunction, it is hard to get a clear perspective on it in global terms.
When I began to work on this article, I had no idea what I would find
in the way of historical parallels for earlier Chiron-Pluto conjunctions,
and I had no collection of facts with which to "prove" any preconceived
hypothesis. I do have experience of many clients, however, who, born under
the last conjunction of Chiron and Pluto in 1941, and also under the long
opposition between them during the 1960's, seem to carry or have carried
-- at some point in their lives - a very particular sense of alienation
and scapegoating, of rage against life, of feeling at the mercy of collective
forces they cannot cope with. Deep mistrust and bitterness are sometimes
characteristic of both the conjunction and the opposition, but often this
cannot not be linked with specific childhood issues. Also, the bitterness
may be unconscious, like an unhealed abscess, drawing hurtful situations
which seem to come from "outside". Chiron and Pluto together form a coalition
which, if unconscious, believes that offence is the best defence in the
face of a survival threat, and that life is an unsafe place in which the
weak, the "different ones" who do not belong, are wounded and victimised,
and only the powerful survive. I have found that healing, for many born
with these aspects, seems to begin first with recognising the bitterness,
and accepting that some of the mistrust is valid and true, given our sorry
human history. This may involve relinquishing a false spirituality which
masks considerable anguish underneath; and it may also require facing
one's own savagery and complicity, often unconsciously enacted. Opening
this secret wound can help the individual to discover, through real experience,
that, despite life's unfairness, individuals and collectives can also
be motivated by good will and compassion; and this kind of realism can
help the individual to make peace with the past.Those with planets in the first two decanates
of the mutable signs have been experiencing the Chiron-Pluto conjunction
very powerfully. When this conjunction makes hard aspects to personal
planets, the individual is challenged and awakened, in the sphere of the
natal planet, through painful memories, re-enactments of past suffering,
and a recognition of the darker elements in human nature. External events
such as losses and separations are possible; illness is also possible;
but more common are inner events such as depression, a sense of failure,
and a feeling that the past is repeating itself and one is trapped in
something which cannot be changed. Confrontation with the inevitable may
initially fill the person with feelings of impotence, powerlessness, and
victimisation. The effects of such experiences, because the transiting
conjunction is in Sagittarius, make a profound impact on the individual's
world-view, spiritual convictions, definitions of "right" behaviour, and
trust in the future. I believe the potential this transiting conjunction
brings to natal planets is to mature them, making them deeper, subtler,
and wiser, and bringing about an acceptance of life's limits which allows
a greater possibility of joy and compassion because one's expectations
are no longer impossibly high. Through one's personal experiences of pain,
one joins the human race. This transit reflects childhood's end, and challenges
our innate narcissism. We may experience sadness, grief, and mourning
for what is irrevocably lost: on a personal level, and in the spheres
of hope, faith, religious beliefs, spiritual aspirations, and trust in
legal and religious institutions and systems of knowledge. Pluto in Sagittarius
precipitates serious rethinking and re-evaluation in these spheres. But
the presence of Chiron here teaches us that some things cannot be fixed,
and that our determination to survive may blind us to the ways in which
we injure others as well as ourselves.

The peculiarities of the Chiron-Pluto
cycleCertain oddities occur in this planetary conjunction
cycle which do not occur in the cycles of other pairs of planets. The
conjunctions of Chiron and Pluto occur roughly 60 years apart. But due
to their elliptical orbits, the conjunctions only seem to occur in four
signs of the zodiac: early Sagittarius, early Gemini, early Leo, and late
Pisces. Our present Sagittarian conjunction echoes the previous Sagittarius
conjunction in 1752-1753; the Leo conjunction in 1941-42 repeated the
earlier Leo conjunction of 1697; the conjunction in Gemini in 1881-1885
repeated the earlier one of 1642-43s; and the 1818-1821 conjunction at
the end of Pisces repeated the 1579-82 conjunction. What this pattern
might mean in terms of the evolution of the collective baffles me; but
it is a very succinct pattern, as though we only experience the challenge,
suffering, and potential healing of the Chiron-Pluto conjunction through
very particular spheres of experience. We cannot assume that events of
a clear and unambiguous kind, easily attached to the meaning of the two
planets, will occur under every conjunction. In fact, we have to admit
that, contrary to popular expectation, nothing especially enormous "happened"
at the dawn of the millennium, except irrational exuberance on the Nasdaq,
some very exciting parties, and a general sense of disappointment because
the world did not actually end. Yet we are facing particular moral and
spiritual challenges at the moment which are affecting individuals and
collectives very powerfully.

The 20th century conjunction cycleHistorical research can, however, sometimes
give us glimpses, if not answers. A brief exploration of the previous
conjunction of Chiron and Pluto might be useful at this point. Chiron
entered Leo in October 1940. It joined Pluto for an exact conjunction
in July 1941, in 4º Leo. Although they made only one exact conjunction,
they were within orb of conjunction, initially out-of-sign, through the
second half of 1940, and continued within orb through the summer of 1942.
During the closest phase of this conjunction, the Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbour, and Hitler invaded Russia, resulting in the debacle of Stalingrad
and the loss of millions of German and Russian lives. The Chiron-Pluto
conjunction landed exactly on Hitler's natal MC at 4º Leo, and widely
conjuncted his Saturn in the 10th house - perhaps reflecting an activation
of the Leonine archetype of imperial grandeur and domination and the divine
right of kings as a mode of survival, but with dark roots that fed on
long-forgotten grievances harking back to ancient Teutonic/Slavic conflicts
of the past. The mythology of a superior race destined to rule the world
perhaps also belongs to this Leonine archetype, and was, it should be
remembered, adopted by many people in many nations during the time of
the conjunction. This was a universal Zeitgeist, and not merely the creation
of one mad Austrian with a funny moustache; and the sound of marching
jackboots could be heard in America and Britain as well as in the streets
of Berlin. Sir Oswald Moseley and George Lincoln Rockwell were not German
exports. They were home-grown. Transiting conjunctions of outer planets
reflect something happening in the collective psyche, which means that
they happen within each of us. Until we understand this, we will continue
to seek answers to life's barbarity in isolated individuals who, although
we deem them evil, could never wield such psychological power over so
many unless they were mouthpieces for some spirit of the time moving in
the depths within all of us.When Chiron and Pluto meet, an ancient survival
mechanism is activated, sometimes quite savagely, rooted in memories of
ancestral wounds. Also, perhaps most importantly, the theme of the scapegoat
- peculiarly connected with Chiron - is invoked. This was played out,
under the exact conjunction in 1941, in the setting up by the Nazis of
the first extermination camps, and the beginning of the systematic murder
of "outsiders" - Jews, gypsies, Slavs, and homosexuals - throughout Russia
and Poland. Hitler also invaded Yugoslavia under this Chiron-Pluto conjunction,
on 6th April 1941, with, according to recent reports, the encouragement
and support of Pope Pius XII. This is a sad and horrific judgement on
the leader of a great religious institution, only revealed - with awful
aptness - during the present conjunction of Chiron-Pluto in Sagittarius.
And under the same aegis, in August 1941, Slobodan Milosevich was born,
with the Moon conjunct Pluto conjunct Chiron in the 4th house. When, later
in this particular Chiron-Pluto cycle, Chiron moved into Leo in 1992-93
and formed the incoming square to Pluto in Scorpio, Milosevich began his
policy of "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia. The themes of the Chiron-Pluto
conjunction of 1941 have continued to reverberate over the 60 years between
that conjunction and the present one, revealing to us what we are capable
of when our wounds become survival issues and feed on a centuries-old
past; and also pointing toward a potential change in consciousness that
might allow forgiveness and a letting go of the past.
The first square of the 1941 cycle occurred with Chiron in Scorpio and
Pluto in Leo. They were in exact square only once, in November 1947, in
14º. The opposition between Pluto and Chiron occurred between Chiron in
Pisces and Pluto in Virgo. This opposition lasted for a long time. Chiron
entered Pisces in April 1960. The two planets made eight exact oppositions
between July 1961, in 6º, and November 1965, in 18º. Uranus was also involved
in this configuration in its later phases, and Saturn was likewise involved
in the last two oppositions as it transited through mid-Pisces. Many people
are born with these double oppositions. It is a generation group signature
of a particularly powerful kind. The oppositions coincided with the height
of social unrest during the 1960's, with Kennedy's assassination, with
student riots and "flower power", and also with the outbreak of the Vietnam
War. The disruptions of the 1960's are usually blamed on Uranus conjunct
Pluto. Yet the elements of bitterness and disillusionment, present at
the very beginning, are, to my mind, characteristic of Chiron's involvement.
This was a time when the scapegoats, the "outsiders", rose in rebellion
against what they experienced as life-threatening power structures, in
politics, society, and religious institutions. Many born under this opposition
feel victimised, or carry immense bitterness at life's unfairness, and
battle against oppression, sometimes violently, on a deep, instinctive
survival level; and they have few illusions about the good intentions
of others. Many of them also feel impelled to change the world, to cleanse
the wounds, to heal the bitterness. It is perhaps worth noting that Princess
Diana was born under the first exact opposition of Chiron in Pisces and
Pluto in Virgo, in July 1961.
The final square of the 1941 Chiron-Pluto cycle took place with Chiron
in Leo and Pluto in Scorpio. They were exactly square for the first time
in 22/23º during November/December 1992, and they were exactly square
for the second and last time in 23º in July 1993. It was during this period
that the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana broke down; this
was only one surface sign of a general sense of pain and disillusionment
around issues of sexual fidelity and loyalty, sexual promiscuity and the
transmission of AIDS. With Chiron again in the sign connected with the
divine right of kings, disillusionment with all those Leonine emblems
in the outer world was perhaps inevitable, and enacted, on one small stage,
by the British royal family.

The Chiron-Pluto conjunction of
the late 19th centuryIt is worth briefly mentioning the Chiron-Pluto
conjunction at the end of the 19th century, although it is long ago and
we have less personal associations with it than we do with the 1941 conjunction.
Yet it, too, echoes the themes of collective suffering and a powerful
survival instinct unleashed through the finding of a scapegoat - this
time justified by "scientific knowledge". This conjunction occurred in
the early 1880's, at the beginning of Gemini - directly opposite our present
Chiron-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius. During this period, colonial
expansion of the European powers (especially in Africa) was at its peak;
perhaps it is dreadfully fitting that now, under the present Chiron-Pluto
in Sagittarius, we are observing the inevitable backlash, as scapegoat
becomes scapegoater in places such as Zimbabwe. Also rampant during the
Gemini conjunction was the promulgation of the concept of "inferior" races;
indeed, the scramble for the raw wealth of Africa was justified on this
basis. Pseudo-scientific doctrines issued by the University of Vienna,
and subsequently spreading across Europe, proclaimed that some races were
innately inferior, which included not only the Jews, but also the Swiss
- for it was believed that the inability to speak correct and properly
pronounced High German indicated a congenital failing signifying racial
inferiority. This insidious doctrine eventually worked its way into Nazi
propaganda, and is still believed by many. Yet also during this time,
major discoveries were made in medicine: Koch discovered the TB bacillus,
Pasteur developed preventive immunisation for anthrax and then successfully
innoculated against rabies. The colonial expansion and accompanying assumption
that the white man had to bring enlightenment to the "heathen" inferior
races, and the doctrines of racial superiority, encapsulate the destructive
expression of this Chiron-Pluto in Gemini, which equated survival with
scientific knowledge utilised against the "outsider". The scientific discoveries
of this time encapsulate the healing potential of the conjunction: disease,
itself an "outsider", can only be fought if it is recognised and understood.

The millennium conjunctionWith Chiron-Pluto now in Sagittarius, one
of the archetypal themes which has been activated is fear of the foreign
(xenophobia, toward both people and "outside" influences). Our compassionate
impulse to welcome the outcast stranger is polarised with our fear of
the potential destruction wrought by those who do not respect our own
values and social structures. An immense influx of wanderers is polarised
with a rising xenophobic spirit. Sagittarius is a dual sign, and is often
self-contradictory in its morality; it is both the originator of the "Do
as I say but not as I do" ethos, and the quickest of all the signs to
perceive and decry such hypocrisy in others. This is why the Monica Lewinsky
episode was so hilarious - even, eventually, to Americans themselves.
To illustrate the strangeness of this Sagittarian dichotomy, I would like
to quote a man who had the Sun conjunct Jupiter in Sagittarius: Heinrich
Himmler, who said, "We must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to
members of our own blood, and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian,
to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest." The thorny issue of
immigration is presently heating to boiling point in the collective psyche,
and clearly linked with the Chiron-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius; and
realistic fears are inflamed in otherwise reasonably inclined individuals
by ancient memories of invasion and the destruction, and transformation,
of culture and society by the "outsider". We are painfully polarised, both outside and
within ourselves. This ancient fear has erupted notwithstanding the demographic
evidence of population drops in all the European countries, including
Catholic Italy; despite this, there is resistance against making up the
numbers with those of foreign origins. Political correctness is part of
this strange constellation, an attempt to present an unprejudiced stance;
but it is frequently sadly ineffectual, often grossly hypocritical, and
tends to constellate its opposite. Humans are wounding other humans badly
at the moment; we are confused and bewildered when we find ourselves capable
of blind hatred and prejudice, and equally confused and bewildered when
we discover that our compassion and generosity may be coldly and ruthlessly
exploited. Political leaders such as Jörg Haider (who, born on 26 January
1950, has Chiron in 18º Sagittarius in close trine to Pluto in 17º Leo)
use emotional methods to achieve power, playing on our ancient atavistic
fears, and many decry such tactics; yet we would not respond so powerfully,
pro or con, if we did not experience, somewhere within, ancient terrors
being aroused. Beyond the economic and social issues lies a much deeper
issue: What is the right thing to do? How deeply do we believe our own
religious tenets? Gullibility and cynicism vie within us, depriving us
of clarity of thought and action, and undermining our confidence in our
own decency.Under Chiron-Pluto, our dark collective secrets
can no longer be kept; they burst like boils for all the world to see.
Scandals in the political arena are forcing us to rethink our values.
Films like Erin Brockovich present us with the issue of the individual's
power or lack of power to challenge the destructive irresponsibility of
large companies and institutions, yet also reveal that, even if we succeed,
we cannot heal what has already been irrevocably destroyed. And where,
in the midst of our stone-throwing, is our own collusion? Compensation
money will not raise the dead, nor eradicate the horrors of the past,
nor address the roots of the dilemma; we have yet to discover this in
the midst of our new-found fervour to take our misery to the law courts
and barter it for cash. Communication, now global and instantaneous, may
be used as a means, not only of revelation of the truth and a release
of ancient suffering, but also of inflammation of ancient grievances:
the transformation of the scapegoat into the scapegoater. We know, from
a psychological perspective, that the perpetrators of crimes against "outsiders"
usually experience themselves as painfully, irrevocably, incurably "outside".
Do we police the internet to root out "hate" groups, or do we honour our
belief that freedom of speech is one of the fundaments of a democratic
society? Do we pillory a nation which has democratically elected an extreme
right-wing leader, while condoning the equally repellent excesses of the
extreme left? The exposé of the collusion of Pope Pius XII and Hitler
comes, appropriately for Chiron-Pluto, at the moment when the present
Pope has seen fit to offer his version of an apology for the Church's
past wrongs. It should come as no surprise that many individuals question
the sincerity of such apologies, and the moral integrity of the edifice
which has offered them; and, once again, we are thrown back into the painful
questioning and disillusionment which accompany this Chiron-Pluto conjunction
in Sagittarius. And, finally, our pain seems to be making us question,
rather than merely blindly exterminating.What is important for us, as individuals,
is the ways in which these factors operate within each of us. We all have
our struggles with that which is foreign, and we may identify either with
the foreigner or the native, the scapegoat or the scapegoater. We need
to avoid projecting this struggle outside, and deal with its implications
inside. Otherwise we simply wind up signing extremist petitions against
immigration, or petitions against right-wing extremists, without having
learned anything at all about where extremes can lead. Chiron-Pluto raises
ancient hurts which make us polarise in a highly emotive way, because
we remember, in our blood and bones, the centuries-old wounds which cannot
be redressed. Milosevich, as I have pointed out, was born
under the conjunction in Leo; he acted out its most devastating dimension
by perpetrating on others the savagery he and his people had experienced
themselves. Yet many people born under this conjunction see all too well
the destructive potentials inherent in nursing past grievances, and they
commit themselves deeply to the path of healing and teaching. This is
the positive face of Chiron-Pluto. Yet the enlightened healer may himself
or herself also suffer, or be victimised by forces beyond any individual's
control. The good guys may also be casualties in any war, inner or outer.
Chiron-Pluto gives us the opportunity to see our own evil as a collective,
to peer deep into the poison of our ancient wounds, and to find a new
perspective which can allow us to make peace with the flawed nature of
our human inheritance. Forgiveness and humility are essential for this
conjunction, and we badly need it now; without these qualities, at least
in some small degree, we polarise and find ourselves acting out the savagery
in big or little ways, without consciousness and without moral reflection.
We may well feel bitterness about the unfairness or corruptness of the
law, or of our politicians, or of our religious institutions. We may be
furiously frustrated by the fruitless pursuit of Serbian war criminals,
or the endless trials of garden-variety thugs who walk free because a
lawyer's cleverness has proved more powerful than the blatant truth. We
may sometimes abandon hope for Palestine, for Kosovo, for Northern Ireland,
for Rwanda, for Chechnya, for Zimbabwe, for Sierra Leone. We are likely
to be disappointed in all of these things because even our best efforts
will give us only compromises, not solutions, and the dead will not rise
again. Yet we have to find a way to live with these things, and keep our
faith in whatever we define as the highest good.Even astrologers often do not want to look
at these issues; they come up uninvited, personally and collectively,
when Pluto and Chiron are in aspect, and they are then forced upon us.
In "New Age" circles, such themes are often not spoken of, because they
are deemed "negative" and "unspiritual". We are thinking now more than
we did in 1941, and perhaps more than in 1883 when we assumed our racial
superiority. We have, perhaps, a little more consciousness at present
than we did during earlier Pluto-Chiron conjunctions. The wanderer, the
scapegoat, the wounded healer, the healing wound; these are Chiron's themes.
Survival, fight to the death, the end of that which has outlived its usefulness,
the cleansing of the past, the desperate need for a new world-view: these
are Pluto's themes. This is not a cheerful conjunction, yet it could free
us from so much, in our personal lives and as a collective. The myth of
Chiron concerns his final acceptance of death, because he can no longer
bear his pain as an immortal. Perhaps, under this conjunction, we need
to relinquish our infantile dreams of immortality, of being looked after
by a divine, caring State, or by believing that, in our personal lives
as well as in the world outside, goodness is always immediately recognisable
and rewarded, and evil punished. Healing, for Chiron-Pluto, comes with
a mysterious blend of hard realism and profound compassion: accepting
the world as it is, while avoiding bitterness, passive resignation, and
the stance of the victim. This, I believe, is the deepest meaning of the
Chiron-Pluto conjunction and what it is presently offering us.

George
Harrison died on Thursday, 29. November
2001 at Los Angeles, 13.30 local time

1There is, admittedly,
a lot of confusion about George Harrison's birth time. According to Taeger's
Internationales Horoskope Lexikon, Harrison was born on 25 February 1943
at 00.05 local time (23.05 GMT on the 24th) in Liverpool. Taeger classes
this data as Group 2P, which means fairly reliable because it is an autobiographical
statement. This is the chart data I have used above. However, according
to Frank C. Clifford in British Entertainers: The Astrological Profiles
(Flare Publications, London, 1997), Harrison, in an interview with Tashi
Grady in Billboard, stated that his astrologer had rectified his chart
to 23.52 local time or 22.52 GMT, giving him an Ascendant of 0º Scorpio.
The progressed Ascendant for this birth time would be 7º Sagittarius,
although the Pluto-Chiron conjunction would still have been opposite his
progressed Saturn.Back

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